When pro-life Christian Scott Roeder was arrested for killing abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, Fox talkers, as far as I can recall, were not outraged and did not label this man a domestic terrorist. The same could be said about Frazier Glenn Cross, an anti-Semitic member of a "white patriot" group, who was arrested after a shooting at a Jewish Community Center. But the supposedly fair & balanced Fox News sees the alleged murder of a white teenager, by an African-American man who claims to be acting in accordance with Islamic teachings, as another example of the supposedly rampant black on white crime and domestic Islamic terrorism. This morning, "news" reporter Martha MacCallum validated a low rated radio talk show host's assertion that the tragic killing of Brendan Tevlin, a young white man, by a black man claiming to be a jihadist, is an example of "domestic terrorism already here." Be afraid, folks, be very afraid.
Last month, during the coverage of the shooting of Michael Brown and its aftermath, Martha MacCallum advanced the right wing trope that Brown's shooting was no big deal compared with other examples of black on black violence and, of course, black on white violence. As an example of the latter, Martha MacCallum cited the shooting of 19 year old Brendan Tevlin, during what initially appeared to be a robbery, by a black man. MacCallum said that she could "only imagine his community watches this and says where was the outrage over what happened to this boy?" Yesterday, she upped the ante in presenting this case as not just another example of black on white crime but crime perpetrated by Islamic jihadists who, according to Fox, are hiding under your bed, ready to slaughter you for just being white and Christian.
Right at the jump, MacCallum described the issue as "an important story." She framed the patented Fox fear-of-Islamic jihad message: "There is growing outrage that a possible act of jihad, on US soil, is getting precious, little attention." She reported the backstory about Brendan Tevlin's shooting. Working in the secondary message about how the evil, librul media ignores what's really important, she added "there were not too many headlines over this man's death which, she noted, was considered a random act." (The story is on the CBS website.) She reported that theories which ascribed the act to robbery or drugs have been dismissed.
While a photo of the accused shooter was shown, she talked about the "interesting" things that Ali Muhammed Brown said about how his motive was revenge for US military action in the Middle East. She explained that this statement "led to a NY radio host sounding off, saying that the evidence shows that domestic terror is, in his opinion, already here" and played audio of radio talk show host and former announcer for the WWF, Todd Pettengill who said that "if there is ever a reason to riot in the streets," it would be this incident. In comparing the bad black protesters from Ferguson to nice white people, he said that the only action, taken after Tevlin's shooting, was a candlelight vigil.
He wanted to know why Eric Holder isn't visiting the Devlin family. (Because this isn't a case of an unarmed black teen, from a community in which there is rampant racial discrimination, whose shooting, at the hands of a white cop, is very questionable?) He wanted to know why Obama wouldn't be mentioning Devlin during his speech on the Middle East. (Because Devlin has nothing to do with ISIS?)
Pettengill (who "has brought a huge amount of attention" to the story) whined about the lack of national attention and claimed a "personal connection" to the story because his daughter knows the Tevlin family. He asked "where is the outrage" over this man who "was killed because he was an American." MacCallum claimed that we now "know" that Tevlin was "targeted" because he was a "white man alone in his car." And because Brown, who might be mentally unstable or just using religion as a pretext, is a suspect in other killings, MacCallum, not a lawyer, claimed that "when you look at the facts of this case, it looks more like an act of serial terrorism that has spanned the country, at this point." Pettengill, not a lawyer, brayed about the "targeting" and, despite there being NO connection to any Islamic terror cells, how "domestic terrorism is here."
MacCallum said that this story should get the same coverage as the death of Michael Brown. She asked "if his motivation was what he said it was, then what does that make him, if not a terrorist?" Pettengill proclaimed that Devlin is the face for the truth that "domestic terrorism is already here."
So, not only do we get our daily dose of Fox fear of blacks and Muslim terrorists, but a minor league radio host gets some sweet, national publicity! Fox News, fair & balanced...